EPSO keeps COVID-19 on lockdown at county jail

While many correctional and detention centers have struggled to contain outbreaks of COVID-19, the El Paso County jail has not.

As of 10/7/20:
Sterling Correctional Facility - 629 cases
Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center (downtown Denver) - 651 cases
Jefferson County jail - 109 cases
Weld County jail - 77 cases

On the other hand, the El Paso County jail, among the larger county jails in the state with nearly 1200 inmates, has experienced only 10 cases.

That includes 7 deputies and 3 inmates.

Newschannel 13 was granted an exclusive tour of the jail this week to find out why.

It turns out the strategy at the county jail is not all that different from the NBA playoffs, which was to isolate the players at Disneyworld and limit visitors to keep the virus out.

The virus has brought major changes to the jail, most of which have to do with screening everyone who comes in.

According to EPSO Watch Commander Lt. Eric Carnell, everyone who works in the building or visits the jail is now funneled through the same entrance on the north end of the complex.

Carnell explained that while many might think that inmates pose the greatest threat to each other, only about 100 new inmates arrive every day, while 300 employees come and go every day.

Among the operational changes among deputies, they no longer crowd inside a small room for daily briefings of groups of 30 deputies five times a day.

The jail will soon have new social distancing-friendly locker rooms that are nearly four times larger than the old ones, and the new lockers won't need to be shared.

Any police officers or deputies visiting the jail are scanned and questioned, while their prisoners go through a much more extensive medical screening than they previously underwent before being released into the general population.

Meanwhile, the inmates' clothing and other personal items that they brought into the jail at the time of their arrest are now vacuum-sealed by a new machine in the property section to ensure any germs on those belongings can't spread.

As for the inmates, they are now told to clean much more often and much more thoroughly.

They are also told to stand farther apart.

Inmates are still allowed outside their cells, but for about half the hours per day as before.

That has occasionally resulted in inmates lashing out at deputies or each other.

"They're already in jail, they're already incarcerated, and now we're taking more of what they feel like is their freedom, their time," explains Carnell, "but we had to do those things and really push it to make them safe."

Currently, inmates inside the jail don't have to wear a mask.

Part of the reason for that is because once they are inside, they are believed to be surrounded by those who have gone through an extensive screening process.

Another reason is concern over what a mask might be used for, other than protecting an inmate's face.

Some masks contain wire or other material that could potentially be used as a means to escape or to harm themselves, other inmates, or deputies.

Construction this week at the jail is everywhere, inside and outside the building.

More than $13 million in federal coronavirus relief money is paying for everything from safer rooms to cameras and door locks and more.

Click here for a full list of improvements covered by the CARES Act funding.

The only requirement is that all projects be done by the end of the year.

The sheriff's office did lose a deputy just a few weeks into the pandemic, Jeff Hopkins, who worked in the intake section of the jail.

As tragic as it is, the jail commander believes his death might have saved the lives of other deputies or inmates, because it was a wake-up call about the danger of the virus.

It prompted additional safety measures and it is still something the staff thinks about every day.